Increasing concern has been voiced by academicians and policy makers about the criterion used for resource allocation decisions in health. The conventional cost/benefit analysis based on human capital approach with emphasis on direct expenditure and lost earning is no longer adequate on theoretical and methodological grounds. Alternative ways of measuring the health outcomes and benefits include willingness-to-pay and the revealed preference approach, amongst others. This conference proposes to bring together a small but select group of scholars and practitioners from various disciplines to: (a) identify policy and methodological issues involved in measuring outcomes and benefits, (b) review the state-of-the-art of those issues, (c) formulate new approaches to measurement and (d) specify research strategies to assess and resolve problems involved. The conference will invite experts from divers fields such as medicine, economics, psychology, sociology, biomedical research, and public policy to participate so that a cross fertilization of ideas and methodologies would lead to the advancement of health services research and public policy making. In the area of applying benefit measure to the assessment of the new technology and research, past study efforts have been rather scanty. This conference will attempt to remedy the situation with special attention to the assessment of returns to biomedical research.